“The fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy.”  That is a confirmed quote from one of our unelected leaders in Washington.

There are so many things wrong with that sentence it is tough to know where to begin.  Sure it’s incorrect, but it is also symptomatic and emblematic of where we are right now as a culture: empathy is seen as a weakness.

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about that.  After all, from his birth in Bethlehem, to the sermon on the mount, to the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus was all about the power of empathy.  God empathized with the human condition enough to become incarnate in the world as one of us.

Empathy is the motor of human evolution.  It makes us better than we are.  It also what makes civilization “civil.”  If we are without it personally, we are empty inside.  If we are without it socially, we are left to the law of the jungle.

Empathy is the ability to feel.  The opposite of empathy is indifference; or the inability to feel.  We are fast becoming a society where empathy is being replaced by indifference or, better to say, a kind of hyper-indifference in which those with the fewest resources are to be abandoned, scorned, and attacked.

The truth of the matter is that empathy has become a radical act.  And that’s exactly why we need to practice it now more than ever.  We do this through our interactions with others, by supporting organizations that oppose hatred, by reaching out to those being cast aside, and by remembering that we belong to the Creator of love and empathy who is always greater than indifference and cruelty.

Empathy is the hallmark of God.  It is a strength not a weakness.  We need to practice more of it because empathy is what makes us Christian.  More than that, it’s what makes us human.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic